INCORPORATING
VIDEO GAMES INTO
THE CLASSROOM
CHIN-WEN HUANG
FINANCE DEPARTMENT
DECEMBER 1 ST, 2011
OUTLINES
• Why use games to teach
• How to incorporate games into the classroom
• An application
• Challenges of digital game-based learning
• Sources for a suitable game
• Q&A
WHY USE GAMES TO TEACH
WHERE WE ARE
• Most educators are neither game players nor
developers.
• Old impressions about games
• Today’s games are categorized as
- Adventure games
- Role-play games
- Strategy games
- Sports/Military games
- Puzzle games
WHY USE GAMES TO TEACH
BACKGROUNDS OF TODAY’S STUDENTS
• Today’s students, the so-called Net Generation, have
grown up in an environment in which Internet
communication and computer technology are an
ordinary component of daily routines (Annetta et al.,
2006).
• A recent survey shows that 65% of college students
are regular or occasional game players and 30% of
college students admit playing games in class
(Oblinger, 2006).
• According to a 2008 Pew Survey, 97% of teens and
81% of young adults (18-29 years old) play computer
games on a regular basis.
WHY USE GAMES TO TEACH
WHAT TODAY’S STUDENTS DEMAND
Kirriemuir (2004) summarized the ten characteristics of “new vs.
old” views toward learning.
• twitch speed vs. conventional speed
• parallel processing vs. linear processing
• graphics first vs. text first
• random access vs. step by step
• connected vs. standalone
• active vs. passive
• play vs. work
• payoff vs. work
• fantasy vs. patience
• technology as friend vs. technology as foe
WHY USE GAMES TO TEACH (CON’T)
THE BENEFITS OF DIGITAL GAMES-BASED LEARNING
• Games provide a comfortable learning format
for the current generation.
• Games motivate people. Competitions and
immediate rewards motivate students to stay
focus on the subjects.
• Games offer the simulated environment that
allows learners to experience the scenarios
that would otherwise costly.
• Repeatability is the key that people master
certain knowledge. Students learn from
mistakes and experience.
WHY USE GAMES TO TEACH (CON’T)
THE BENEFITS OF DIGITAL GAMES-BASED LEARNING
• It’s important to know that games are
effective in facilitating learning not because
they are fun, but because they capture the
essence of the human learning process.
- Social
- Research
- Problem solving
- Transfer
• The benefits of DGBL are supported by
situated cognition and play theory.
INCORPORATING GAMES INTO THE
CLASSROOM: COURSE DESIGN
• A good lecture plan evolves defining the objectives,
evaluating the delivery methods, and designing the
assessments. DGBL is no different.
• Before introducing games into the classroom, you should
ask the following questions:
- Motivations. What are your goals?
- Are suitable/ relevant games available? Can games deliver
the appropriate learning outcomes?
- Are games costly to your students?
- Do students have necessary technology support?
- Do students have necessary skill sets to participate the
games?
- How will you evaluate the process (design the rewards)?
INCORPORATING GAMES INTO THE
CLASSROOM: SOURCES OF GAMES
• Let students build games from scratch
- Pros: Problem solving skills and programming
languages
- Cons: Time-intensive and only works for certain courses
• Educators build educational games to teach students
- Pros: good balance between learning and entertainment
- Cons: Time-intensive and not cost effective
• Integrate commercial off-the-shelf games into learning
- Pros: Cost effective in terms of time and money;
applicable to most subjects
- Cons: Good matches are hard to find
(Source: Eck, 2006)
INCORPORATING GAMES INTO THE
CLASSROOM: TIMING AND FORMATS
• Timing: Prior to the lecture, during the class,
and after the instruction
• Formats: outside the classroom, in the class
• Finding the balance between game play and
other usual instructional activities is very
important.
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
Motivations behind this implementation
• Financial illiteracy has become an ongoing concern.
- over half of 4-year college students lack the skills of
comparing finance charges between various credit
cards (American Institutes of Research in 2006)
- 73% of the college students studied engaged in at
least one risky financial behavior within the six
months prior to the survey (ASU 2007-2009
longitudinal study)
• Educators face significant challenges in motivating
individuals to acquire financial knowledge (Hilgert,
Hogarth, Beverly, 2003) .
• Online games provide students a safe, low-cost, fun,
yet realistic interface by which to practice the
knowledge gained in class.
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
What are your goals?
Understanding the importance of savings and debt management
Understanding the time value of money
Understanding how the financial system works
Develop short and long-term financial goals.
Acquire proper knowledge to make educated decisions
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
Are suitable/ relevant games available?
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
Are games costly to your students?
No, they are free online games offered by various not-for-profit
organizations.
Do students have necessary technology
support?
Yes, the games provides have technology support.
Do students have necessary skill sets to
participate the games?
Yes, these games do not require any prior trainings.
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
How will you evaluate the process (design the
rewards)?
Written assignments (learning summary) will be used to assess the
process. In the learning summary, students should
-
relate the games to the concepts taught in class
-
discuss the logic of the game design
-
other findings
A COMPARISON OF DGBL &
TRADITIONAL LEARNING
• DGBL Problem
• Standard end-of-chapter problem
What would be common savings goals for a person who buys a
five-year CD paying 5.5% instead of an 18-month savings certificate
paying 4.75%?
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
Outcome assessments
• A series of free online games offered by various notfor-profit organizations are adopted.
• Two sessions of personal finance courses are
accessed: one w/traditional problem-based
homework assignments and one w/ online games
homework assignments.
• Midterm and final exams were the method of
accessing student learning outcomes.
• Comments from DGBL group were also collected.
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
• Learning outcomes
AN EXAMPLE
(FIN100, PERSONAL
FINANCE)
• Comments from students
“This simulation was useful and a fun challenge.”
“Well first off this is an excellent game; it incorporates all aspects of
budgeting and financial planning.”
“This game was very helpful in terms of financial planning and how to
save money for unexpected occurrences.”
“Overall I found this game to be a very successful learning
experience.”
“Having the chance to actually implement what you have learned
shows the practical applications of the knowledge. “
“This was a very frustrating game in the beginning and I actually
choose to restart because I didn’t make good choices in the
beginning. So I started over and played phenomenally if I do say so
myself.”
CHALLENGES OF GAMEBASED LEARNING (1)
• Games are a great vehicle for practicing knowledge
gained, but bad at delivering a great deal of
knowledge at the same time (Corti, 2006)
• Games should be designed as a supplement, rather
than as the core instructional method
CHALLENGES OF GAMEBASED LEARNING (2)
• DGBL is not for every subject.
• Games work best for introductory courses. As the
course moved on to more complex content, learning
with or without multimedia became equally difficult,
and students became less motivated in general
(Ebner and Holzinger, 2007)
CHALLENGES OF GAMEBASED LEARNING (3)
• Suitable games are hard to find.
• Educational games are hard to design because they
have to do many things at the same time.
• Course preparation could be time-consuming.
SOURCES FOR A SUITABLE
GAME
• Prensky’s list of 500 “serious games”.
www.socialimpactgames.com
• McDaniel and Telep (2009) summarized various games available
to post-secondary instructors. Subjects include humanities and
science courses.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no2/mcdaniel_0609.htm
• Health Games Research provides various games related to
health education. http://www.healthgamesresearch.org/
• Starting point at Carleton College provides a list of Geoscience
related games.
http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/games/examples.html
• UC Boulder provides a list of science-related games.
http://phet.colorado.edu/
• Goldsimulation provides various economics related games.
http://www.goldsimulations.com/index.htm
THANK YOU